Catherine Zeta-Jones to star as drug lord in 'The Godmother'

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones is set to play real life kingpin Griselda Blanco in the upcoming biopic The Godmother.

The project will be directed by Eva Sorhaug with a script from Frank Baldwin. Daniela Cretu is producing and Nicholas Pileggi will be the executive producer, Deadline reports.

Blanco also known as "The Black Widow" has been the first woman to rise to the higher ranks of Colombia's Medellin drug cartel in the 1970s and '80s. She became a multimillionaire in her forties and served 18 years in prison after being arrested in Miami on 1985. Blanco was then deported to Colombia where she was killed in a motorcycle drive-by assassination in 2012.

Blanco's story was the subject of the2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys. The Godmother is slated for a 2015 release.